Roberto Bolaño, Amulet
A conversation with Ryan Long
Questions on Amulet
Videos about Roberto Bolaño and Mexico in the 1960s
This week we were tasked with reading the Soldier of Salamis; I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I just did not enjoy this book. It is a book that disinterested me, was too long, and was kind of confusing at times. I hate to be like this, and will try my best to write […]
“This is going to be a horror story. A story of murder, detection and horror. But it won’t appear to be, for the simple reason that I am the teller.”
Bolaño’s Amulet is a powerful read, to say the least. The introduction (as quoted above) is poignant enough to captivate a reader and make them ponder about perspective. Personally, those lines developed a stream of consciousness in my mind that began to wonder about how war and revolution always have multiple sides to them, whether it may be the perspective of a civilian, an activist, a politician, or a child.
Auxilio Lacouture played more than one role in her life – she was a poet and a mother to many. Moreover, she symbolically resisted the army’s invasion of her university by hiding in the bathroom for around two weeks. As she began to recount her story, the introduction of the book became clearer than ever. I forgot about her situation and the horrors that she would have experienced. This was kind of unsettling to realize but also interesting because the narrator’s intended purpose was achieved.
I suppose that this was somewhat unsettling for me to read, especially because I could not get a proper idea of Auxilio at the moment. She came across as a very powerful personality who knew what she needed to do in any situation. This was exemplified by the distraction that she provided herself with for the two weeks she spent in hiding.
Additionally, I believe that the lecture helped provide a new understanding of the setting of the book. The intersection of identities (cultural and otherwise) expresses how the consequences of revolutions extend beyond just the locals of a country. Moreover, one of the points mentioned in the lecture really stood out to me – how this novel by the author is a clear break from the magical realism that Latin America is usually associated with.
Overall, I found Amulet to be an introspective read. I enjoyed the unique setting that it was placed in. Lastly, my question for the class would be: did you think that the narrations of Auxilio’s past served as a powerful distraction from the events in the book? How do you think this experience would have impacted her (physically and emotionally)?
“This is going to be a horror story. A story of murder, detection and horror. But it won’t appear to be, for the simple reason that I am the teller.”
Bolaño’s Amulet is a powerful read, to say the least. The introduction (as quoted above) is poignant enough to captivate a reader and make them ponder about perspective. Personally, those lines developed a stream of consciousness in my mind that began to wonder about how war and revolution always have multiple sides to them, whether it may be the perspective of a civilian, an activist, a politician, or a child.
Auxilio Lacouture played more than one role in her life – she was a poet and a mother to many. Moreover, she symbolically resisted the army’s invasion of her university by hiding in the bathroom for around two weeks. As she began to recount her story, the introduction of the book became clearer than ever. I forgot about her situation and the horrors that she would have experienced. This was kind of unsettling to realize but also interesting because the narrator’s intended purpose was achieved.
I suppose that this was somewhat unsettling for me to read, especially because I could not get a proper idea of Auxilio at the moment. She came across as a very powerful personality who knew what she needed to do in any situation. This was exemplified by the distraction that she provided herself with for the two weeks she spent in hiding.
Additionally, I believe that the lecture helped provide a new understanding of the setting of the book. The intersection of identities (cultural and otherwise) expresses how the consequences of revolutions extend beyond just the locals of a country. Moreover, one of the points mentioned in the lecture really stood out to me – how this novel by the author is a clear break from the magical realism that Latin America is usually associated with.
Overall, I found Amulet to be an introspective read. I enjoyed the unique setting that it was placed in. Lastly, my question for the class would be: did you think that the narrations of Auxilio’s past served as a powerful distraction from the events in the book? How do you think this experience would have impacted her (physically and emotionally)?
I found the novel “Amulet” by Roberto Bolaño to be very interesting. I was confused at first as to if the stories Auxilio was telling were things that had happened in real life or were only that of a dream. As the novel went on, it revealed that it was the dreams of Auxilio and that cleared a lot of confusion for me and the novel made sense. I found all the different stories and experiences in this novel to be very interesting. I would think that having the several different stories and plot lines of the dreams in the novel would be confusing, but in conclusion it was done in a perfect way where I was able to hear the right amount of each story and make sense of it, which made me interesting into what was going to happen next. I wonder what the end part of the novel during the snow and ice storm represented and if it was part of a dream of Auxilio’s. I know that during the snow storm, there was a little voice that had been conversing with Auxilio and I wonder who that little voice was and how they knew Auxilio. My question is who was the little voice in relation to Auxilio? It seemed like they knew a lot about Auxilio and happened to be someone that knew she had a power. That power being telling the future, I wonder if that had something to do with the level of vividness of the dreams that Auxilio had or that has raised her ability to dream like that. I think that the way these dreams were written was very beautiful and I found myself getting lost in each of them as it moved on towards another dream full of memories. I was able to follow along with each part of the novel and understand. It was interesting to see the part in which Auxilio tells the little voice that she can tell the future. Auxilio pointing out the dates in the future was interesting and put life into a different perspective for me. I was able to see all these dates and it just lead me think more about how time works and how powerful work and art from humans is and how it makes such an influence and impact on the future and lives of other humans. I found this book to be a beautiful novel.
I found the novel “Amulet” by Roberto Bolaño to be very interesting. I was confused at first as to if the stories Auxilio was telling were things that had happened in real life or were only that of a dream. As the novel went on, it revealed that it was the dreams of Auxilio and that cleared a lot of confusion for me and the novel made sense. I found all the different stories and experiences in this novel to be very interesting. I would think that having the several different stories and plot lines of the dreams in the novel would be confusing, but in conclusion it was done in a perfect way where I was able to hear the right amount of each story and make sense of it, which made me interesting into what was going to happen next. I wonder what the end part of the novel during the snow and ice storm represented and if it was part of a dream of Auxilio’s. I know that during the snow storm, there was a little voice that had been conversing with Auxilio and I wonder who that little voice was and how they knew Auxilio. My question is who was the little voice in relation to Auxilio? It seemed like they knew a lot about Auxilio and happened to be someone that knew she had a power. That power being telling the future, I wonder if that had something to do with the level of vividness of the dreams that Auxilio had or that has raised her ability to dream like that. I think that the way these dreams were written was very beautiful and I found myself getting lost in each of them as it moved on towards another dream full of memories. I was able to follow along with each part of the novel and understand. It was interesting to see the part in which Auxilio tells the little voice that she can tell the future. Auxilio pointing out the dates in the future was interesting and put life into a different perspective for me. I was able to see all these dates and it just lead me think more about how time works and how powerful work and art from humans is and how it makes such an influence and impact on the future and lives of other humans. I found this book to be a beautiful novel.
Roberto Bolano’s “Amulet” is a unique tale which, in its focus on character development in a time of political violence, makes a more potent statement about human perseverance. The perspective is the student Lacouture hiding in the bathroom of UNAM from the army coming to crush the student protest movement. On the surface, it appears […]
